ABB Wins $1 Billion Order for Offshore Wind Power Connection

ABB

has won an order worth around $1 billion from the Dutch-German transmission grid operator TenneT to supply a power link connecting offshore North Sea wind farms to the German mainland grid. This is the largest power transmission order in ABB's history. It will deploy the world's largest offshore HVDC (high-voltage direct current) system with a rating of over 900 megawatts (

), keeping electrical losses to less than 1 percent per converter station. The completed link will be capable of supplying more than 1.5 million households with clean wind-generated electricity. Scheduled to be operational in 2015, this offshore network will help to avoid more than three million tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year by replacing fossil-fuel based generation. Germany's installed wind power capacity of over 27 gigawatts presently meets about eight percent of its electricity requirements. Plans are to double that by 2020. This is the third offshore wind connection order for ABB in Germany, following the 800 MW Dolwin1 link awarded last year and previously the BorWin1 project.